Out Of the Pit...

Last week, I spent four wonderful, relaxing days at a retreat center in Auburn (CA). I'd been hoping it would bring me out of the doldrums and help me climb out of my pit of depression. I'm happy to report it did. I had a fantastic time and enjoyed myself so much. Sewing all day, eating lots of fruit and chocolate and drinking huge amounts of good coffee, going to bed when I could barely sew another stitch, having my meals prepared for me and no dishes to do, sleeping in a comfortable bed in my own tiny little cell of a room... all of it was pure heaven! It was very difficult to pack up my car and drive away last Thursday, but part of the challenge was to think of the week as a new beginning, and accept that I can change my everyday life back home, and make my own retreat every day in my beautiful studio. I've always thought of my studio as a haven away from the stuff I want to get away from, but I'm thinking about it a lot more now.

The setting of the retreat center was absolutely gorgeous. Auburn is nestled in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at an elevation of about 1200 feet. The grounds are surrounded by groves of tall trees and lush vegetation. It's incredibly quiet there with lots of gentle bird sounds, and wind rushing through the trees. No Spanish style California architecture is complete without a central patio and bubbling fountain, and here was no exception... I was reminded of my grandparent's house on the Central California coast. The walls of the hallways and many of the meeting rooms were covered with wonderful art - both paintings and fabric work, and there were comfortable, and I mean really, truly, lushly comfortable, chairs everywhere, and beautiful bouquets of fresh flowers on every surface. There was a beautiful grand piano in one of the rooms, but it was so horridly out of tune I simply couldn't stand to play it...  >8-/

This is the view from my room... the building in the background is where our group had our sewing space...                                                                    

The central patio from the residence hall entryway...

The residence hall from the sewing room...

View of the grounds from the sewing room...

Inside, the sewing room was huge, with lots of tables and room to spread out our stuff, tons of natural light durning the day, and reasonably good lighting after dark, though it helped to have that extra lamp near my machine.

There was plenty of inspiration and everyone was turning out great work!

Here's Chilly and her "Gordian Knot"...

Another big, colorful eye-popper from Jennifer...

Jo's whimsical "Day On the Farm"...

Joan's "Canine Stars"...

Trudy's "Hungry Caterpillar"...

As for myself, I pieced and pieced and pieced and pieced, and got all of the squares made for a Day of the Dead "Yellow Brick Road"quilt, finished the eight pieced squares from my "Ave Maria" quilt kit, and completed another block from that dreadful "Canine Stars" project... I'm hoping to put the Yellow Brick Road and Ave Maria tops together this week. I still have two more Canine Star blocks to make, but the Goddess only knows when I'll feel inspired to work on those again. It was about six months since I completed the last block, and that was a just-about-right time gap. Pics later.